From the field of automatic weapons in particular, various types of weapons are known which must in each case be cocked by means of a cocking element before the first shot is fired. By means of the cocking element, the recoiling part of the weapon is normally moved into a cocked position counter to the force of a spring, which is placed into a stressed state. When the weapon is actuated, the recoiling part of the weapon is then, driven by the force of the spring, accelerated in the direction of the ammunition to be fired, and is subsequently, after the shot has been fired, moved back in the direction of the cocked position owing to the resulting recoil. This process is then repeated for every further shot fired, resulting in a type of pendular motion of the recoiling part of the weapon, and a large number of shots can be fired within short periods of time.
To prevent shots being fired inadvertently, it is often also provided that the weapon can be transferred from an armed state into a safe state in which, for example, the recoiling part of the weapon is blocked such that it is not possible for a shot to be fired. For this purpose, a manually actuable safety locking element is often provided, for example in the form of a pin that can be moved back and forth between two positions and by means of which the weapon can be transferred from an armed state into a safe state and vice versa.
In the case of manual actuation of the weapon, the actions of cocking, making safe and arming do not pose any great difficulties because the corresponding steps can be readily performed by the gunner by hand.
Particular demands arise in the case of weapons which, by way of a weapon station arranged for example on the roof of a military vehicle, can be actuated by the gunner for example from a vehicle interior which is protected against ballistic threats. This is because, in the case of such weapons, the weapon is cocked, made safe and armed not by hand but in automated fashion. Conventionally, for this purpose, both the cocking element and the safety locking element are actuated in each case by means of a separate drive, which has however proven to be cumbersome both in terms of apparatus and in terms of control technology.
Published European Patent Application No. EP 1 499 844 B1 discloses a weapon station, wherein the weapon arranged in the weapon station can be cocked, made safe and armed by means of a single motor drive, whereby the outlay in terms of apparatus and control technology can be kept relatively low. For this purpose, the weapon station has an actuating element which, in the manner of a spindle nut, can be moved axially by means of a motor drive, wherein the actuating element can be coupled to a cocking bolt on the weapon, which is situated in the movement travel of the actuating element and which can be driven along axially by said actuating element for the purpose of cocking the weapon. The actuating element simultaneously operates a spring-loaded blocking lever by means of which the weapon is made safe and armed. The blocking lever is moved back and forth between a release position and a blocking position by the movements of the actuating element, wherein the blocking lever, in its blocking position, blocks the movements of the cocking element on the weapon, whereby a movement of the recoiling part of the weapon is also blocked, and thus shots cannot be fired inadvertently.
In the case of a device of said type, it has proven to be disadvantageous that the blocking lever arranged on the weapon station does not interact with the safety locking element of the weapon itself, but instead, the safety locking of the weapon is realized only by blocking of the cocking element, which in adverse situations, for example in the event of removal of the weapon from the weapon station, harbors the risk of undesired triggering of shots.